The Detroit Red Wings will officially retire Sergei Fedorov’s number 91 jersey ahead of their game against the Carolina Hurricanes on January 12, 2026. And, if Fedorov has his way, the Washington Capitals will be represented on the night by one of Fedorov’s former Caps teammates, Alex Ovechkin.
According to a recent report from Detroit’s Daniella Bruce, Fedorov has personally invited Ovechkin to the ceremony at Little Caesars Arena.
“I asked Ovi what his relationship was like with Sergei now, and he said, ‘It’s still really good,'” Bruce said earlier this week on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit. “In fact, Sergei personally invited Ovi to the jersey retirement ceremony here on January 12. Obviously, some of that will depend on the NHL schedule and if Ovi can make it, but how cool would that be if we see him here in Detroit to watch 91 go up to the rafters.”
The Capitals, due to the Olympic break, are incredibly busy in January and have games the day before and the day after Fedorov’s ceremony. They play the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on January 11, then return home to Capital One Arena for the start of a three-game homestand, with a game against the Montreal Canadiens on January 13.
Theoretically, Ovechkin could make the quick trip from Nashville to Detroit and be back to DC the night before the Capitals play the Habs. Or he could practice in the morning with the Capitals on the 12th, then fly out of DC to Detroit and back later that night.
Fedorov’s acknowledgement comes 16 years after his final NHL season, when he played with the Washington Capitals in 2008-09. The season before, the Caps acquired the legendary center at the trade deadline to help their push to become a true Stanley Cup contender, which is also when Ovechkin met his idol for the first time.
“When he get traded to Washington, because when you’re a little kid, and you play against him, you kinda like shake, and worry about, ‘Should I say something to him or not?'” Ovechkin told Bruce. “So, when he get traded to Washington, we have right away a great connection. He help me grow up my game and growing up as a person. Obviously, he was a leader on the ice and off the ice.”
Ovechkin and Fedorov reconnected this past summer when the two went out for dinner with former Caps teammates Alex Semin and Viktor Kozlov after Pavel Datsyuk’s farewell game. Ovechkin recently spoke about how Fedorov and Kozlov helped shape him into the player he has become early in his NHL career.
“Feds, Kozzy, those guys, help us out big time because we was teenagers, right?” Ovechkin said last month. “They played in NHL so long so they knew the rules, they knew life.”
Ovechkin has since taken up a similar role as the elder statesman on the Capitals, serving as a mentor and confidant for young Russian and Belarusian players who arrived in DC after him. Current names under his watch include Aliaksei Protas, Ilya Protas, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and Bogdan Trineyev.
